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French citizenship for ‘Spiderman’ migrant who saved boy dangling between life and death

Mamoudou Gassama, a 22-year-old Malian immigrant in France, became the darling of social media after a video of him climbing the four storeys amid cheers from the crowd present on the spot went viral.

May 28, 2018 / 18:31 IST
French President Emmanuel Macron (L) meets with Mamoudou Gassama, 22, from Mali, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 28, 2018. Mamoudou Gassama living illegally in France is being honored by Macron for scaling an apartment building over the weekend to save a 4-year-old child dangling from a fifth-floor balcony. Thibault Camus/Pool via Reuters - RC1CBB2EE560

In a scene that can easily fit into one of those ‘your neighbourhood superhero’ movies, a Malian immigrant in France was hailed a hero after he reportedly climbed four storeys from the ground in less than a minute to save a four-year-old girl boy hanging from the fourth-floor balcony.

Mamoudou Gassama, a 22-year-old Malian immigrant in France, became the darling of social media after a video of him climbing the four storeys amid cheers from the crowd present on the spot went viral.

Here's the video:

Gassama, who came to Paris a few months back dreaming to building a life there, has been named an honorary French citizen after meeting France’s president Emmanuel Macron.

The footage was recorded last Saturday and the authorities assured Gassama for assistance in settling in the country, however, after meeting Macron, Gassama was made a naturalised citizen straight away.

Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo praised Gassama on Twitter for his ‘act of bravery’ and phoned him personally for his deed.

Reporters from multiple news outlets in France tracked him down 24 hours after the video became viral where Gassama told him that he acted without thinking too much.

"I saw all these people shouting, and cars sounding their horns. I climbed up like that and, thank God, I saved the child. I felt afraid when I saved the child... (when) we went into the living room, I started to shake, I could hardly stand up, I had to sit down," he said in a report by France24.

The report states that the boy’s father had left him alone in the house. The boy’s father was arrested by the police for questioning and the mother was out of Paris.

Moneycontrol News
first published: May 28, 2018 06:31 pm

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